steering column | LudemannEngineering

Next up: mount the steering column in the chassis. Nothing magical here, just lots of little steps. The steel bearing cup insert did work well at preventing distortion during welding. To get a proper press fit for the rear support bearing I decided to use my new internal bore gauge. At first it didn’t work at all (made in China, of course), so I had to disassemble it completely, figure out how it was supposed to work, unstick the rusted shaft, replace the dead battery, and reassemble it. All in a day’s work out here on the frontier. So now I can measure both holes and shafts to a few microns and press fits are much easier to make.

: Front bushing; sheet metal cut on bandsaw and with die grinder

: Front bushing support bent to shape

: Front bushing support cap, ready to weld

: Finished front bushing support

: Turning steering column rear bearing cup

: Finished rear bearing cup

: Finished rear column support parts

: Steel insert bushing to prevent distortion of the bearing cup during welding

: Rear support, ready for welding. Note steel insert to prevent distortion.

: Test fit; fit was perfect first try.

: Rear support welded

: Ready to tack weld in place

: Tack welded

: Quality Control Inspector gives her approval.

I originally sent all these parts out to the CNC shop, but they never got back to me with a quote so I ended up making everything myself. The spline onto the steering rack was a tight press fit, so for now the entire column including the rack is a single assembly. I don’t know it’s possible to remove the rack later, and I’m not going to try as it might destroy the rack. The U-joints are special units from Sweet Manufacturing in the US, but don’t seem to be anything special. In the future I might try to adapt standard Honda steering column U-joints and column splines. These use a perpendicular pinch bolt so the column can be disassembled at each joint.